Aelin's Yulemas
by RiaAndHerCourt
Summary: Aelin's first Yulemas as queen


Yulemas.

Aelin watched the snowflakes fall, lost in thought. Her first Yulemas back in Terrasan in so, so long. Up north, snow was common nearly year round, but it was wonderfully appropreate for the flakes to fall back down. Growing up, it had always been regarded as good luck to have snow on Yulemas.

She remembered that no flakes had fallen that year.

But instead of frowning, Aelin smiled, letting the memory fade and replacing it with warmer ones. Early holidays, riding around the kingdom in the morning, breathing in the scent of pine trees. The extravagant holidays at the Assassin's Keep. They'd been lavish in all the ways she'd adored, but she thought back to the simplest gift. Sam had tossed a package at her the moment she'd left her room the morning in her thirteenth year. She'd hissed at him, but he just growled something about not to stab him in the back. It had been a very simple, well-weighted knife.

She touched the window before holiday had been wonderful, too. Aedion and Rowan had chopped down the largest pine they could find, while Aelin, Lysandra, and Evangeline spent the time covering every available surface with garland and ribbons. The tree was kept very simple: a star at the top and candy strings swung around the way Aelin and Aedion had done when they were younger. Aelin had told Fleetfoot very clearly that if anything happened to the tree overnight, she would be blamed.

Fleetfoot did not pee on the tree.

In the morning, Dorian, Chaol, and Nesryn had finally arrived and the gift exchange began. Notably, Dorian, the smart boy, brought a ten pound bag of candy. This time, he managed to take a receive a few back before Aelin finished. Nesryn had baked pounds upon pounds of Yulemas tarts, which disappeared very quickly. Aedion attempted to give feeble handmade ornaments to each of the friends, the most ornate suspiciously going to Lysandra. It had been a day of love and laughter and fun. It had been a day of family. 

Night had come, and people had retired to their respective rooms. She and Rowan had opted to save their gift exchange for the evening.

Aelin smelled Rowan's pine-and-snow scent before even reaching the room. In all honesty, she didn't know what to expect. She'd hardly known what to get him. Still, Aelin wanted to know what he'd gotten her. Not that'd she'd peek, she just wanted to find it. Aelin had(lightly) checked around the castle and had seen no trace of any gift. She didn't know what he would get her. But she wanted to know. And she wanted him.

When her eyes reached her fae, she smiled broadly. A tender kiss served as greeting before the two sat on the bed.

"I'll go first," Aelin declared. She was nervous, not hesitant.

Rowan growled lightly. You've gotten bossy since you became queen, he teased.

She didn't bother hiding her eye roll. I've always been bossy.

Rowan nodded, and the two smiled gently at each other. After a second, Aelin lept off the bed and dug around in her wardrobe. At the very back was a large box.

"That's where you hid it?" Rowan exclaimed. "I searched every nook and cranny, figuring there was no way this oh-so-brilliant queen would hide a box right in her bedroom."

"Our bedroom," she corrected. And it worked, didn't it? Naughty boy, she added cheekily with a glance.

Rowan looked about two seconds from snatching the gift from her hands, very different from his usual relaxed and controlled demeanor. She wondered how long it had been since he'd had a real Yulemas.

The gift was neatly wrapped in green and white paper. Aelin's smile grew as he so obviously struggled to resist the urge to tear the paper.

Inside the box was a very frilly, very short, golden nightgown.

Rowan stared at the gown for a long minute before fixing her way a bored expression. It's not quite my size.

Maybe you'll find some other use for it was the coy response.

Rowan tugged a little at the material before glancing meaningfully at the bed. "Well," he mused aloud, "it might look very good around your wrists."

With a deep blush, Aelin gritted out that he should look further into the box. What had been hidden under the dress was a flower. Not any flower, but a terrasen rose.

The terrasen roses was considered very special to the kingdom. When Rhoe got engaged to Evalin, Evalin's family presented them with an enchanted rose bush that was said to never prick the well intentioned and to smell sweet without ever wilting, even after plucked for eternity. But it was more than that. Whenever Aelin got sick, Evalin Ashryver would make Aelin a tea from the rose petals. Even though no one had ever claimed the petals had any healing properties, it was comforting.

The bush had been burned, those years ago. It stood to reason the roses were gone forever. But a few weeks ago, while Lysandra and Aelin went for a walk, there was a single rose at the base of a tree. How it got there, Aelin could not know, but she knew it was for her.

And now she gave it to Rowan. Because the terrasan rose was a kind part of her childhood, and flowers would always have a special meaning to Rowan. He knew what the rose was, too, because Aelin had mentioned it before. Rowan fixed his gaze at her, a bittersweet smile.

Thank you.

A moment later, Rowan slid off the bed and grabbed a package from under it. Apparently over the past centuries Rowan hadn't learned how to properly wrap a box.

It was a small shape, and it smelled odd.

Aelin sniffed. Why does it smell like dirt? she asked with a tilt of her head.

Rowan shrugged. I didn't want you to find it early.

You think I'd be as childish as to look for it early?

Yes.

So you buried it?

Yes.

Fae brat, she thought before carefully opening the present.

It was the dagger.

Inside was the dagger Sam had given her seven years ago.

She stared at the dagger, then back at Rowan. How?

Her fae prince shrugged. "When I was in Rifthold a few weeks ago, I stopped by the Keep. Your scent was very faint, but I smelled it.

She still didn't know how he'd found it; she'd tossed it aside so carelessly for something shiny when she was so young.

Aelin clutched the dagger tightly and then hugged him.

"Merry Yulemas, Rowan," she whispered.

"Merry Yulemas, Aelin," he replied.


End file.
